January 22, 2023 - Blessed Are Those
Matthew 5:1-12
Deborah Laforet
Blessed Are Those
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
In one of my readings this week, an exercise was suggested, done in one of two ways. First, take the beatitudes from Matthew 5 and change the subject to reflect the privileged in our society and what they receive. Here is what I came up with:
3 “Blessed are the rich in spirit, for theirs are the kingdoms of earth.
4 “Blessed are those who do not mourn, for they are praised for their strength.
5 “Blessed are the strong, for they will take over the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for wickedness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the powerful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the hard of heart, for they will see less suffering and pain.
9 “Blessed are the war makers, for they will be called warriors of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are praised for the sake of wickedness, for theirs are the kingdoms of earth.
11 “Blessed are you when, on account of Jesus, people love you and praise you and shout all kinds of good about you. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great on earth and in heaven.
The second part of this exercise invited one to take the beatitudes and keep the subject the same, but change “Blessed are” to “Woe to”, and write them so that they accurately state what is experienced today. So, here, again, is what I came up with:
3 “Woe to the poor in spirit, for theirs is a life of hell.
4 “Woe to those who mourn, for they will be neglected.
5 “Woe to the meek, for they will inherit nothing.
6 “Woe to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be left empty.
7 “Woe to the merciful, for they will be mocked and belittled.
8 “Woe to the pure in heart, for they will see only heartbreak.
9 “Woe to the peacemakers, for they will be called bleeding hearts.
10 “Woe to those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is a life of oppression and frustration.
11 “Woe to you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Jesus. 12 Don’t rejoice or be glad, for your only great reward will be in heaven.
It was an interesting exercise; one you may want to try on your own.
What does it mean to be blessed? Even those who don’t go to church or have no faith in God, use this word in their speech. We usually use it to imply that God, or the divine, or the universe, has given one opportunities or ways of making life good. We might hear, “I feel so blessed to have a roof over my head. I am blessed with a good job. I am blessed with a beautiful family. I am blessed to have money in the bank, and blessed with good health.” If we stop and think though, if we are blessed in these ways, are we saying that people are not blessed if they are sick, unemployed, alone, struggling financially, or living on the streets? Does God bless some and not others? Do we have to work for these blessings? Do they have to be earned? Are blessings always extrinsic, meaning, are they material and something you attain?
Those of us who are comfortable, who have a nice home, a good job and pension, and good health, like to think we have earned these things, that God has blessed us in these ways, because we are good people and loved by God. It also allows us to feel less guilty about those who do not have our privileges. We assume they must not have worked hard enough, or that their behaviour has somehow put them where they are, or that they must have done something to put them in these circumstances.
This is one of the reasons we are exploring the issue of homelessness for the next few months. Why are people on the streets? Why do people need food banks? Why is there addiction and mental illnesses? There are a variety of reasons that people live on the streets, why they don’t have a home, and we need to better understand these reasons, so we can better understand our own unearned privilege, explore the solutions and preventions, and to better learn how we can offer support and advocacy.
For example, one reason for homelessness I learned recently is because of the shut down of mental institutions in Canada. There were a number of reasons they were shut down, some good reasons, like abuse in the institutions and giving people agency and independence, but also some bad ones, like not wanting to pay for these very expensive places. In shutting these places down, there were supposed to be other services put in place to support people who would now be on their own. But this didn't happen. The book we are reading, Her Name is Margaret, by Denise Davy, tells the story of one person who found herself on the streets of Hamilton after the institution was forced to discharge her, even whey they knew she wasn’t ready and didn't have supports. It’s about the failed services, and the lack of supports that caused her to be homeless, hungry, alone, and, eventually, so ill that she died at only 51 years old.
So what did Jesus mean when he gave this sermon about people who are blessed? Jesus was preaching from a hill. There was a large crowd gathered at the base of the hill to hear him, but there was also a small circle of followers who were sitting at his feet. When Jesus gave this message, he wanted these followers, his disciples, to hear this flipped message, because they too believed it was the rich and powerful who were showered with God’s blessings, and that those who found good jobs and were successful gained the blessings of God. Jesus had a different message for them. In looking at that large crowd before him, he wanted the disciples to see also, that, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are the persecuted, blessed are those who seek righteousness.” The people who gathered to hear Jesus and to be healed by Jesus, this dusty, travelling, poor rabbi, were not the ones people would typically call blessed and not the ones people would say would inherit the earth, or be called children of God, or that theirs was the kingdom of heaven. It must have sounded very unusual, and although, it doesn’t sound strange to us because we’ve been reading this piece of scripture for 2000 years, we still don’t quite believe it, and we are still not living this way.
We are all blessed by God, but who needs more attention? There is a phrase, “preferential option for the poor,” first written by Gustavo Gutierrez in 1967, which speaks of those people who need more attention, more support, more compassion, more love, than others might, and that God has the option to prefer or pay more attention to these needs. It’s a theology that emphasizes that God is not showering more blessings on people who already have their basic needs met. It’s a theology that emphasizes God’s compassion for those who do not have those needs met, those who are suffering in the cold or the heat because they don’t have an appropriate place to live, those who can’t find a job because they have a prison record, an unpronounceable name or a strong accent, or a single parent with children to support, or those who are hungry and have used the last of their money to pay rent, or those with mental illnesses who are on waiting lists for years and who can’t find the support they need for basic living.
We are all blessed. We are blessed with life, with breath, with the world’s abundance, with each other, and with the love of God. Sometimes though, as Jesus knew, our attention needs to be on those who are blessed and in need, not those who are blessed with few needs. Jesus was reminding his disciples, and he is reminding us, that God blessed everyone, not just those who are lucky and privileged, and work hard to be successful. We are encouraged to remember those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who are persecuted - in other words, those people that are often blamed for their circumstances, those people that are often forgotten and ignored.
We are all children of God; we will all inherit the earth; the kingdom of heaven belongs to all of us. Rejoice and glad, for our reward is great. When we realize that this means everybody, we will discover that our reward is great in heaven and on earth. It’s one small step towards creating God’s kingdom on earth.
May God shower us all with blessings of love and compassion. May Christ continue to remind us where our attention needs to be. May the Spirit fill our hearts with God’s love and compassion to share with all people, but especially those of us who need a little bit more. May it be so. Amen.